Does the Broken Estate Have a Heart?

[Bekah]

On Jul 24, 2009, at 10:55 AM, Paul Mackin wrote:

> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Campbel Morgan" <campbelmorgan at gmail.com 
> >
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 4:15 AM
> Subject: Does the Broken Estate Have a Heart?
>
>
>> This passage, provided by John,  fails to convince this reader.
>
> I thinik it's going to take a lot more energy than has so far been  
> expended to fully explain what people mean when they say Pynchon  
> books don't have heart.



And I think people's minds are made up.   I've tried more than once to  
explain the difference between flat and rounded characters or  between  
character-driven,  plot driven and  theme-driven novels, but there are  
folks who see some of these terms in a negative way and can't accept  
them in OBA.

Also,  what's "heart" to one may be dry as dust to another.  I've  
never shed a tear over anything in a Pynchon,  but then,  I haven't  
shed a tear about anything in fiction since Beth died in Little Women  
(I was about 8?)

The heart I see evidence of in AtD is in the miner's strike,  the  
meeting of Lake and the sheriff's wife and maybe the ending  in a  
different way.  Those scenes touched my heart.  (Is that what's meant  
by that vague term?)   But heart  isn't the MAIN point of Pynchon's  
fiction.  His work is post-modern and he writes novels of ideas  -  
like Ulysses or The Magic Mountain.    But saying that doesn't mean he  
doesn't have heart! - my goodness, he's written a lot of words -  
there's heart in there.  Thomas Mann wrote with a great deal of heart.  
(imo)

I think MOST of Pynchon's characters are somewhat flat - (see E.M.  
Forster) like Dickens' characters where you can tell a bad guy just by  
his name and one line description and he will always act according to  
his "role."   But some of TPR's characters are more rounded (this is a  
range!) and will surprise the reader -  Scarsdale Vibe was flat; you  
always knew what he was going to do,  his name told you up front,  and  
there was very little "development" necessary for him to be the bad  
guy he was.  (lol)   Otoh, Lake was more rounded (she surprised the  
heck out of me, anyway).  I think all the good guys were a bit more  
rounded than the bad - only Scarsdale was so flat he could have been  
in a vaudeville melodrama.

Bekah






http://web.mac.com/bekker2/